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Gunmen in Brazil Caught on Video Shooting at Indigenous Guarani

Rick Kearns

4/18/14

Hired gunmen firing at Guarani in Brazil were filmed recently by the indigenous people who are continuing their struggle to regain stolen territory.

According to Survival International (SI), which posted the video on their website, gunmen have been terrorizing the Guarani of Pyelito Kue since they returned to their ancestral land last month, years after the government had officially recognized their right to move back, forcing the rancher on that land to move out.

On Monday, April 7 they filmed two armed men shooting at them “in broad daylight.”

Video of Gunmen terrorize Guarani

“This video gives a brief glimpse of what the Guarani endure month after month – harassment, intimidation, and sometimes murder, just for trying to live in peace on tiny fractions of the ancestral land that was once stolen from them,” said SI Director Stephen Corry.

Since 2011 the Guarani of Pyelito Kue had been able to occupy a small parcel of land in the Cambara Ranch in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay. In 2012 the community issued a public letter asserting that they would stay and resist, “up until the final consequences.” That same year a federal judge issued an order allowing the indigenous to return but ranchers did not comply with the order. Then in 2013 federal police were sent in to enforce the order with the added stipulation that refusal at that point would mean a daily fine.

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What is it about NDNs that makes us so easy to hate? It's almost like God himself put a "KICK ME" sign on our backs.
I wish our southern brothers the best of luck in dealing with the invaders. My first reaction is to say, shoot back, but that wouldn't solve anything. As we NDNs know, there is an endlessly supply of people to whom Indians mean nothing.